HORIZONS
A Newsletter for Families and Friends of Crotched Mountain
December 2002
Vol 2. No. 3

Meet Don Shumway, Our New President
Building Connections, Relationships, and Sacred Trust
"Thank God!" he exclaimed, "At last I'm back to what I really love to do."
That is Don Shumway's observation after two months on the job as president of Crotched Mountain.
He took over the leadership reins on August 5.
"I am blessed with a career that builds a better community for all," said Don.
His commitment is a concentrated passion for advocating for people with disabilities, as he has 
for all of his career.
He started out as a direct-care worker for multiply handicapped residents for a state school in 
Massachusetts.
In a recent staff development meeting, Don praised Crotched Mountain for its nurturing 
environment and commitment:
"We have so much to be joyous about in all that we do to serve our clients and students. 
The individual is paramount.
We always need to be centered on the person and his or her personal journey through life to 
achieve personal growth and independence. 
We must be dedicated to each person's individual worth for each to be able to carve out his or 
her own path in life.
We are here to listen to each person and understand him or her and to protect and safeguard each 
as a full member of society."
Don tells of his own family's story about son Jacob, who was a special-needs child with a 
learning disability in speech and language.
"He loved school until the 9th grade," said Don.
"The public school system left him behind.
Where he used to run to the school bus, he began to run away from the school bus.
His teachers didn't understand him or how to teach him.
We had to make the difficult decision to send him to a private school, where he thrived and was 
able to return for his senior year in high school. 
This is why Crotched Mountain is so important because it represents a broadening of pathways for 
families to choose among.
To have choices means so much."
Don tells the story to emphasize the importance of having different pathways to provide 
opportunities.
"If those opportunities are not there, we condone failure."
"Each of us has a sacred trust to respond to, to get to know, and to connect with those who have 
disabilities. 
Ethical caring means making connection to persons with a disability to assure that they feel 
respected, are cared for, and cared about," he explained.
The new president is committed to championing new relationships with colleagues and "detractors."
In his short tenure, he has had countless discussions, phone calls, and visits from community 
leaders in which he has created new understanding, and with some people, awareness about Crotched
Mountain.
"We learn a lot from our critics.
I am determined to build partnerships," he said.
Don took leadership of Crotched Mountain at a time when the weakened economy has eroded the 
organization's endowment and escalated the operational costs.
"We will regain our financial stability and are examining all of our cost centers.
Some difficult decisions are being made."
His pathway to Crotched Mountain began when he became a direct-care giver at Belchertown State 
School in Belchertown, Massachusetts. 
Following work as director of a counseling program center for exceptional children in 
Pennsylvania, he came to New Hampshire in 1976 as planning director for New Hampshire 
Developmental Disabilities Council.
He then served in the Division of Mental Health and Developmental Services until 1996 when he was
named co-director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Self-Determination for Persons with 
Developmental Disabilities at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.
In 1999, New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen tapped Don to be commissioner of the Department of 
Health and Human Services, the largest state agency with 3,400 employees.
"In all of the roles-for the past 27 years-I have always been advocating for people with 
disabilities, but it was through moving money to support programs and through advocacy for the 
need of those programs.
What was abstract is now personal.
What was hoped for is now felt.
At last, I am back to what I have always wanted to do, which is support of direct-care giving."
It was at Belchertown School that Don met his wife Miriam.
"Providing direct care is highly revealing of who you really are," he said.
"Your feelings are shown in difficult situations through your kindness in those difficult 
situations and in your moods.
Miriam and I got to know each other through our work.
We've now been married 26 years."
Don admits to being a workaholic.
"Miriam is very patient and understanding," he smiles.
He says he is an optimist.
"I love life.
I am never bored or at a loss for projects at home.
Miriam and I love gardening and being with our children.
Nate is 15, a 9th grader, "who is thoughtful, creative, social, has great values, and is just 
great to Miriam and me and seems to enjoy what he describes as my wierd sense of humor."
Daughter Alena is 24 and an educational coordinator for a historical society in Massachusetts.
"She is a great joy to us.
She is a Smith College graduate, and wonderfully caring - for us and the myriad of friends she 
has around her."
In addition to his family and work, Don's passion outside of work has been building a skateboard 
park for the youth of Hopkinton, New Hampshire.
"Many friends, I know, have a hard time imagining me with a hammer and a screw gun. 
But this project has been a true labor of love.
And we're not building this park from a kit.
There's not another one like it.
Parents designed it and it is constructed with wood.
No cement.
The whole thing has been homegrown, a bunch of town people doing something for their community, 
and all built from small donations received one at a time."
Whatever Don Shumway takes on, it is with the relish for life and passion for doing the job right.
He already is leading Crotched Mountain toward new horizons.

From the President
For my first message in Horizons, I thought it would be appropriate to share with you the 
following.
It was presented to me when I was selected to become president of this wonderful, special 
organization by my good friend Jan Nesbit, director of the Institute on Disability at the 
University of New Hampshire.
I want to share this poem with you because I believe it represents the spirit I have found in 
the people who serve our students and clients.
Don Shumway
President

To be of Use
by Marge Piercy
The people I love the best jump into work head first without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost our of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element, the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart, who pull like water buffalo, with 
massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward, who do what has to be done, 
again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge in the task, 
who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who stand in the line and haul in their places, 
who are not parlor generals and field deserters, 
but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil, hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums, 
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real.

The Boy Who Was Raised by the State
By Deanna Claiborne
Executive Director, United Cerebral Palsy of Middle Tennessee
The following story about a young man names Jim Crone takes place in Tennessee, but it began in 
New Hampshire at Crotched Mountain. 
His story illustrates the realities facing parents and their children when they leave Crotched 
Mountain School when they often find few optins for support in state-funded systems for adults 
with disabilities.
The article and photographs appeared in the February 2002 issue of Breaking Ground, the 
newsletter of the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities.
It is reprinted here with the permission of the Council:
If you made a bar chart that shows the functional abilities of all people with physical 
disabilities, the right side of the chart would reflect those individuals with the greatest 
functional effect.
Jim Crone, 25, would be somewhere near the end of this chart, and, until very recently, he fell 
into a category of individuals for whom state supports and services, other than TennCare, are 
virtually nonexistent.
Jim knows this perhaps better than anyone else, because the state has been his sole source of 
support for most of his life.
Jim was a child raised by the state, and as an adult, he is dependent on the state's prevailing 
"preferred method" of supporting individuals with severe disabilities.
His parents abandoned him
When Jim was 22 months old, his birth parent gave him up.
His current name is not the one he was born with.
He chose to have his name legally changed in 1995 to honor the foster family who cared for him 
most of his young years.
Jim has a type of cerebral palsy that affects all of his fine and gross motor skills.
He cannot control his arms or legs.
The rigidity in his torso prevents him from being able to sit or balance properly.
Lack of tongue and facial control keeps Jim from being able to speak, and cause difficulty when 
he eats or drinks.
In medical terms, Jim has "pervasive spastic quadriplegia with dysarthria and multiple functional
deficits."
While Jim accepts these so-called deficits as his own reality, and he is aware of his dependence 
on others for all functions of his daily living, Jim does not define himself in terms of his 
disability.
When you get to know him, you learn that he likes World Wide Wrestling, Colt 45 Malt Liquor, and 
a good game of checkers.
Don't play checkers with Jim if you don't like being beat.
He is quite the strategist.
Perhaps it is this very normalcy through which Jim perceives himself that makes it so difficult 
for him to understand why he has presented such difficulty to so many bureaucrats for so many 
years.
Jim doesn't like bureaucrats.
An expensive fight
When Jim was in school in Williamson County, his foster family was forced to file a law suit 
against the State Department of Education and the Williamson County School Board for not 
supplying the educational supports Jim (not his name then) was entitled to under the law. 
The School Board responded by refusing to recognize Jim's foster parents as his guardians. 
In an unprecedented move, they denied appropriate educational supports and services, and went so 
far as to appoint someone else to serve as Jim's "educational guardian." 
It was ultimately determined by the courts that Jim's educational rights had indeed been denied.
Jim and his foster family prevailed, but the battle was costly in terms of the family's 
resources, both financial and emotional.
As a result of the lawsuit, it was determinded that Tennessee did not have the resources to meet 
Jim's education needs.
He was move out of his foster home and into a specialized residential school program for people 
with severe disabilities in Greenfield, NH. 
The program, called Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center, provided education, health and 
dental care, occupational and physical therapy, psychological and social support services, 
recreational therapy, technology assessment, and vocational services and training.
Jim misses Crotched Mountain
After a brief period of adjustment, Jim began to blossom.
He thrived in his program.
He developed close bonds with other residents and staff members, and he began to develop 
communication skills using a plexiglass eyeboard.
Jim consistently referes to this as the best time of his life.
To Jim, Crotched Mountain is his true home.
Jim's sense of happiness and belonging was not to last, however. 
When Jim turned twenty-two he aged out all services under Tennessee's Department of Children's 
Services and the Department of Education.
There was no one to pay the $90,000 annual bill to Crotched Mountain.
Jim was pulled out of the program and returned to Tennessee, where he was placed in a nursing 
home.
Jim was abused in the first nursing home placement.
While the second nursing home was not actively abusive, it was clearly not capable of providing 
the level of support that Jim needs.
Jim became severely depressed.
Some days he refused to get out of bed.
Other days, staff forgot to dress him.
His clothing and personal belongings were stolen.
He had no privacy.
His specialized feeding needs required more time than the staff had, so his nutritional needs 
were not being met.
Jim was losing weight.
Jim lacked everything from age-appropriate companionship to meaningful activities for daily 
living.
He was miserable and to compound matters, he desperately missed his life at Crotched Mountain and
he wanted more than anything to return there.
United Cerebral Palsy first met Jim in his nursing home.
When we asked him what we could do to assist him, he was unhesitating in his response.
Painstakingly spelling out letters on his eyeboard, Jim said, "Get me out of hell. 
Give me back my life."
The community-based living support services Jim needed were being provided in Tennessee through 
the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.
However, Jim needed services for which he did not qualify.
Regardless of Jim's level of functional disability, he had to have a primary diagnosis of mental 
retardation in order to qualify.
Taking on a mission
UCP staff member and advocate John Pickett became Jim's best friend and lifeline of the world 
outside the nursing home.
John made phone calls and wrote letters to legislators and anyone else he thought might help.
The entire UCP staff took Jim on as a mission.
We visited the DMHMR commissioner.
We called the Office of Human Rights.
We filed an Emergency Appeal with TennCare.
All to no avail.
Months passed.
Jim's condition continued to deteriorate.
He had received the necessary mental retardation diagnosis, but this had only moved him to a 
waiting list, not toward any real services. 
He was becoming angry with UCP for what he saw as our failure to make any difference in his life.
Whereas we saw progress in getting Jim certified for services, this was meaningless to Jim as 
long as he remained in the nursing home.
Truth be know, Jim would probably still be in the nursing home were it not for two things that 
brought public attention to his plight.
First was the diligence of Tennessean reporter Bill Snyder in following up on a story he had 
written about Jim when he was first returned to Tennessee.
Second was a profile UCP was producing about Jim for the television program "Journeys...
Redefining Ability."
While we were shooting the television feature, Jim received word that he had been moved up on the
DMHMR waiting list, and that a home in the community had been located for him.
On the last day of the television shoot, Jim was moved into his new home.
Increasing public attention to his situation had paid off.
Jim's plight continues
Jim started life in his new home in June 2001, two years from the date he was forced out of his 
beloved Crotched Mountain home.
It would be an over statement to say that everything is all right now, but things are better.
Jim is slowly adjusting to his new home.
He is gaining weight, and his depression is lifting.
His former foster family and UCP friends visit regularly, and he is being introduced to new 
services and supports.
Jim has had some attachment issues in his new life because of the difficulties in maintaing 
staffing in the home where he now lives.
A change in staff means that someone new must learn Jim's routines and how to properly feed him.
Jim still misses the community he left in New Hampshire...and it will be a long time before he 
recovers from the trauma of the past two years.
Tennessee still has a long way to go before this state will earn the trust of the young man it 
raised.
Write to Jim!
We will forward your letters.
Jim Crone
c/o Horizons
Crotched Mountain Foundation
1 Verney Drive
Greenfield, NH 03047

Edna Bean Leaves $1.2 Million to Crotched Mountain
Edna Bean of Wilton, New Hampshire, like to travel.
She also believed in saving, investing and planned giving.
When she died last year, she designated that Crotched Mountain be her major beneficiary.
Her final bequest amounted to $1.2 million.
Edna was a private woman, said her close friend Doris Boutwell.
Edna was born, lived, and worked in Wilton all her life.
She never married, and chose to remain in the family homestead and care for her parents.
Her career began as a bank teller for Wilton National Bank, which eventually merged to become 
Indian Head Bank and then Fleet Bank.
She retired in her early sixties, and died last year at the age of 72.
Edna loved to travel, and was particularly fond of England, said her friend, but she also 
traveled to several other countries, including Tahiti and Iceland.
Why Edna chose Crotched Mountain is uncertain, but her attorney and adviser Will Sullivan of 
Wilton speculated that it was because she had a brother born with spina bifida who died at an 
early age, long before a place like Crotched Mountain was founded.
A special way to put Ms. Bean's generous gift to use to inspire our services for people with 
disabilities is being considered by the Board of Directors.
"Edna Bean's spirit will live on to have an impact on many, many people," said Don Shumway, 
president of Crotched Mountain.
For more information about estate planning and other opportunities for charitable donations, 
contact:
Patricia Whitney, Director of Development
1 Verney Drive
Greenfield, NH 03045
603-547-3311, ext. 471
development@crotchedmountain.org

Andrienne Miller Demonstrates Her Will
First Brain Injury Client Participates in Triathlon
For the first time in the nine years Crotched Mountain has sponsored its Reach for the Top 
Triathlon, a client from the organization's Brain Injury Center participated.
The triathlon was held Aug. 25.
Adrienne Miller, formerly of Huntsville, Alabama, completed the half-mile swim course to spur on 
her teammates to the 21-mile bike race and 5k run.
Her right side is paralyzed from a stroke she had in 1997.
Adrienne's team even placed third in its division.
Her team completed the triathlon in 2 hours, 36 minutes, 14 seconds.
Adrienne's teammates were biker Rhonda Barkley, occupational therapist, and runner Mary Griffin, 
social worker in the psychology department.
Adrienne was accompanied in the water by Tom Badgley, a cognitive therapist.
Adrienne decided to compete in the race last spring when her therapists suggested the idea to her.
"We knew she could do it!" said Cassie White, physical therapist assistant, who worked with 
Adrienne in the Crotched Mountain therapy pool. 
Adrienne enthusiastically acknowledged her accomplishment following the event, "Yessss!"
In all, 177 people competed in the annual triathlon that seeks to raise awareness of brain 
injuries and raises funds for the Crotched Mountain Brain Injury Center.
Major corporate sponsor was Fleet Bank.
More than $7,500 was raised in this year's triathlon.
A complete list of race results is available at www.coolrunning.com

Fund Now Officially Honors Major Wheelock
In recognition of Major Wheelock's many contributions to Crotched Mountain, the Board of 
Directors has changed the name of the President's Discretionary Fund to the Major Wheelock Fund.
The fund was established by an anonymous donor during Major Wheelock's tenure as president to be 
used by him in special ways to meet clients' needs who are without financial resources.
Over the years, it has been used, for example, to provide a voice board for a client who was 
leaving Crotched Mountain and to repair a broken wheelchair for a Brain Injury client.
"Renaming the fund in Major's name, we feel, is most befitting to recognize him for his more 
than twenty years of passionately advocating for people with disabilities and Crotched Mountain,"
said Gil Fuld, M.D., chairman of the Board of Directors.
Contributions to the Major Wheelock Fund should be directed to Michael Redmond, Vice President 
for Advancement, Crotched Mountain Foundation, 1 Verney Drive, Greenfield, NH 03047.

Many Families Enjoy Fall Festival
In addition to families and students attending an open house in Crotched Mountain School and 
several events, about a dozen alumni returned to the campus for the annual Fall Festival held 
Sept. 28.
In addition to the school activities, events included open houses in the Brain Injury Center and 
the Family Resource Center, a demonstration of adaptive vehicles, hayrides, family swim, and a 
barbecue luncheon sponsored by Herb Simpson and his Masonic friends from Massachusetts.
In his first address to those attending the Fall Festival, Crotched Mountain President Don 
Shumway emphasized Crotched Mountain's commitment to find individual pathways to enable each 
student and client to reach their full educational and social independence.
A Fall Festival Dance concluded the day's events.

'Mark, why are you so picky?'
"Why are you so picky?" Jodi asked her Crotched Mountain School horticulture teacher Mark Tenney 
after three class periods of frustrating final touches on her project.
"Well, do you like the way your project looks?"
"Yes," she answered.
"Well," said Mark, "That's why I'm so picky."
Mark explains that his class is really about helping students become independent and, if 
possible, employable.
While the appearance is that students are in an environment to learn about plants, "We are 
really about using horticulture as the venue to learn patience, work skills, and enriching lives.
We work on skills that encourage the students to do their best work.
To put this in horticultural terms, it takes 65 days to grow a cucumber from seed, sometimes a 
little less or a little more.
We cannot rush the process.
Nature has to take its course."
Mark obviously loves his students (72 different students every other day).
He beams when he talks about them and their accomplishments.
Staff face many challenges.
"We (the vocational department) work as a team to provide the best possible programs we can.
Our students run a wide gamut of ability and needs.
Communication is a big issue.
We must be able to determine what a student sees, hears, comprehends, and internalizes."
On example of a complex issue for our students is letting go.
As they work on projects, students become very attached to them.
"Sometimes," Mark explains, "students want to hang on to every thing they complete or do, but 
once they see someone else enjoy what they have made, they hopefully learn a lesson.
Letting go of the project does not mean they have to let go of themselves.
We strive to cultivate their confidence and abilities."
Projects range from creating centerpieces for the Crotched Mountain Gala, autumn globes to 
decorate the school, Christmas wreaths, plating tomatoes, and perennial flower gardens.
"We are continually looking for new projects to challenge our students.
We would also like to branch out into the community, but not be in competition with local 
businesses.
One idea that has borne fruit is working to clean up old cemeteries.
We want our communities to see our students in a positive light."
In the future Mark would like to see corporate or business sponsorship of his program.
"This could be money, materials, or volunteers.
We can always use seed racks and packets, seeds, cuttings, ribbons, containers, soil, fertilizer,
or even posters.
I am sure that there are many businesses that have remnants, leftovers and surpluses of supplies
that we could put to use here. 
We can be very creative!"
Just as Mark wants his students to grow into the best they can be, he wants the horticulture
program to be as enriching, colorful and cultivated as he can possibly afford.

HORIZONS
is published quarterly by the Office of Corporate Communications,
Crotched Mountain.
For more information, contact:
Pat Whitney
Crotched Mountain
1 Verney Drive
Greenfield, NH 03047
603-547-3311, ext 471
patricia.whitney@crotchedmountain.org
As a service to our readers, please write to us at the address above it you wish to have your 
name removed from our mailing list to receive fundraising requests supporting Crotched Mountain.
www.crotchedmountain.org